Hey everyone, just being doing the lights for my trike and figured I would get some pics along the way and do a 'HowTo' as it seems the question gets asked a lot. There are other threads and methods on the site, this is just one way that I have used a few times...
Started with a '70's Union brand dynamo headlight:
And some $3 camping lanterns from the $1 shop:
This is the board those lanterns have after trimming them out of the plastic housing using a DLD (Dremel Like Device.):
Using the DLD again, I trimmed the back off the headlight reflector housing:
Then with a hot melt glue gun, stuck the two together:
Then soldered new wires to the back and supported the wires with more glue:
Assembled the light and here is the finished result:
Then I moved on to my beehive taillights, these were already LED but meant for 24volt, so were too dull on battery power, same process, cut the reflector housing to suit the LED board:
Glue, solder, assemble and this is the result:
This is all running on just 2 watch batteries in the pics and video, final assembly will see them replaced with 4xAA batteries which will run a bit brighter and for much longer.
Basically does not matter what torch/lantern you find, provided you know the voltage it is meant to run at and you keep any resisters that are fitted and make sure you still run them, the basic idea can be used.
Luke.
Started with a '70's Union brand dynamo headlight:
And some $3 camping lanterns from the $1 shop:
This is the board those lanterns have after trimming them out of the plastic housing using a DLD (Dremel Like Device.):
Using the DLD again, I trimmed the back off the headlight reflector housing:
Then with a hot melt glue gun, stuck the two together:
Then soldered new wires to the back and supported the wires with more glue:
Assembled the light and here is the finished result:
Then I moved on to my beehive taillights, these were already LED but meant for 24volt, so were too dull on battery power, same process, cut the reflector housing to suit the LED board:
Glue, solder, assemble and this is the result:
This is all running on just 2 watch batteries in the pics and video, final assembly will see them replaced with 4xAA batteries which will run a bit brighter and for much longer.
Basically does not matter what torch/lantern you find, provided you know the voltage it is meant to run at and you keep any resisters that are fitted and make sure you still run them, the basic idea can be used.
Luke.
